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Harry Kane's strike against Fulham brought to the fore one of the most prolific strikers in English and World football history.
Harry Kane's first-half injury-time strike against Fulham made him the joint-highest scorer in Tottenham's history, a record held for 53 years by Jimmy Greaves.
The late striker whose record Kane equalled is one of the most prolific strikers in English football history, with successful club careers at Chelsea and Tottenham. The 1966 World Cup winner is a man of many records, and Harry Kane would eye some of them as next on his target list.
Jimmy Greaves profile
Jimmy Greaves was born James Peter Greaves on February 20, 1940, in Essex, England. Jimmy Greaves was a striker and one of the best players to ever come from the British Isles.
The 5 ft 8 in striker had a club career that spanned 23 years across eight clubs and a senior national team career that ran from 1959 to 1967, winning 57 caps and scoring 44 goals.
His 44 goals make him the fifth-best scorer in English men's senior national team football history. His six hat-tricks are also the most in the country's men's senior football history.
Greaves also holds the record for being the highest goal scorer in English league football's top-flight history with 357 goals, 97 more than the famed Premier League record scorer Alan Shearer.
The ex-Tottenham star also won six golden boots in the English first division and is an inducted member of the English football Hall of Fame.
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Jimmy Greaves passed away on September 19, 2021, at the age of 81. He is survived by his wife, Irene Barden, their four children, Lynn, Mitzi, Danny, and Andy, and 15 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Jimmy Greaves club career
Greaves made his professional debut with Chelsea in 1957 after spending the previous two years in their youth setup.
He was scouted by Chelsea as a schoolboy and signed to become one of Chelsea's 'Drake's Ducklings', after the then Chelsea manager Ted Drake, in response to Manchester United's 'Busby Babes'.
Greaves made his debut against Tottenham, as fate would have it, the club where he later became their top scorer. After an impressive campaign, he scored on his debut and was described as having "the ball control, confidence, and positional strength of a seasoned campaigner" by the now-defunct News Chronicle.
Greaves finished his first season as the club's top scorer with 22 goals in 37 games, and despite Chelsea finishing 14th (32 goals in 44 games), he went on to become the league's top scorer in this second season.
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Greaves spent four seasons at Chelsea before leaving for AC Milan. He scored a club-record 41 goals in 40 league games in his final season, making him the league's top scorer. He left Chelsea in 1961, and at the time, he was the club's second-highest goal scorer with 132 goals, and he is currently the 7th best scorer in Chelsea history.
Greaves spent only eight months in Milan, joining in April and leaving in December due to low morale.
Milan signed him for a whopping £80,000 at the time and sold him for £99,000 to Tottenham who matched Chelsea's bid, but Greaves chose Tottenham, a club he loved since he was a boy.
It is reported that Tottenham paid £99,000 instead of a more rounded £100,000 because manager Bill Nickleson did not want to place the weight of being the first British player to be signed for six figures on Greaves's young shoulders. It was still a lot of money Tottenham paid for Greaves' services at the time, only £53,000 short of the world record fee in 1961 that Inter paid Barcelona for Luis Suarez Miramontes.
Greaves would go on to be worth the investment and then some.
He went on to score a record 266 goals in 381 appearances for the club.
Greaves started for Tottenham the way he meant to go on, scoring a hat-trick on his first-team debut at the club, the first of a club-record 15 hat-tricks.
He did not manage to win a league title with Tottenham but helped them finish as high as second once and third twice.
Greaves did win two FA Cup trophies (1962 and 1967) with Tottenham, scoring nine and six goals respectively in both campaigns.
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His brace also helped them with the community shield of 1962, a title they picked up again in 1967.
Tottenham became the first British club to win a European trophy in 1963 after Greaves' brace in a 5-1 win against Atletico Madrid helped them win the Cup Winners' Cup.
Greaves left Tottenham in 1967 after becoming the club's record scorer, and surpassing Steve Bloomer to become the highest goal scorer in English First Division history.
Greaves later went on to have a modest playing career at West Ham, Brentwood, Chelmsford City, Barnett, and Woodford Town.
Jimmy Greaves England's career
Greaves made his England debut in 1959, where he scored the only goal in a 4-1 defeat to Peru.
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He played all four games for England at the 1962 World Cup before they eventually got knocked out by Brazil in the quarter-final. He only managed to score one goal in the tournament.
He was also England's leading striker in the 1966 tournament, their only World Cup win; however, he got injured during the third group stage game against France.
He was replaced in the starting lineup by Geoff Hurst who scored in the quarter-final against Argentina.
Greaves was fit enough to start the final, but manager Alf Ramsey thought against changing a winning team, he was proven right as Hurst scored a hat-trick in the final to help England beat West Germany 4-2.
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Greaves did not receive a medal after England won the trophy, as only the 11 starters of the game were given a winner's medal—substitutions were yet to be introduced at the time, and only those who played in the match were given. He was later presented with a World Cup winner's medal in 2009 after an FA-led rule change.
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Jimmy Greaves had a very prolific England career, and in fact, he owns the best goal-per-game ratio amongst the top five scorers (0.77 goals per game) and still holds the record for most hat-tricks in an England shirt (six).
As of 1964, he was the highest goal scorer in England's history with 35 goals, the tally increased to 44 till he played his last game for England in 1967. He was overtaken by Bobby Charlton in 1968.
Greaves was an unused substitute for England at the 1968 European Championships. He left the national team after the competition because he was unhappy with his limited role.
He is currently the fifth-top scorer in England's history and officially a World Cup winner.
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